Scene Theatre Sydney Opens SEED HUNTERS Next Month
Performances are at Pitt Street Uniting Church Performance Space from 17th – 26th October.
By: Stephi Wild Sep. 22, 2025
Scene Theatre Sydney will present the world premiere of Australian playwright Carol Dance’s Seed Hunters, a comedy-meets-conspiracy that challenges ideas of identity, motherhood, and what it truly means to save the world, at Pitt Street Uniting Church Performance Space from 17th – 26th October.
Directed by Melissa Paris and featuring a stellar cast of eleven, this part-satire, part social experiment explores the international movement of the seed hunter — a group of women determined to save the world from toxic males by tracking down genetically diverse men to father their children. It’s whacky, but they’re determined, and it’s supported by the science!
Bob, a young Australian, studies in Peking in 1976 and carouses with other international students. A beautiful Argentine seed hunter and her jealous admirer spell disaster for Bob. He escapes and returns to Sydney only to discover a secret that casts a spell over his life.
Now in 2025, the international movement of seed hunters has grown. They are determined to have healthy, peaceful children. Bob’s niece is a seed hunter and plots her conquest, even as her sister can’t resist the ‘chemistry’ of an exotic lover. Dorothy, the family matriarch, finally steps in to control her unruly and naïve granddaughters. Bob, meanwhile, decides to return to old haunts in Beijing to face his demons of 50 years ago.
Carol Dance’s previous plays are Golden Soil, Gallery Guard, Future Seekers, Indian Embrace, It’s OK to Ask, and 14 others in short play festivals. She says, “Why do these toxic males keep returning in human history? Is it nature or nurture? Are they born or bred? Why are some men wonderfully peaceful and others outrageously aggressive? Could a dedicated global women’s movement tip the balance toward the creation of the peaceful ones? Seed Hunters explores these questions.
Director Melissa Paris says: “When I first encountered Seed Hunters, I was struck by its bold, unapologetic reverence for a generation that dared to question everything and by how fiercely relevant its themes remain. No matter the political, social or environmental circumstances, the ‘freedom to create’ is a driving force of nature that comes from within. Carol Dance gives us a vivid window into the fierey determination idealists, past and present.”
Australia - Sydney Awards - Live Stats
Best Musical - Top 3
1.
MJ THE MUSICAL (Sydney Lyric Theatre)
8.1% of votes
2.
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (Gosford Musical Society)
6.9% of votes
3.
A CHORUS LINE (Curtain Bounce)
6.4% of votes
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